


My Summertime Gal

by DroppedAllTheseOreos



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Can be Read as Shippy or Gen, F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:15:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24586708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DroppedAllTheseOreos/pseuds/DroppedAllTheseOreos
Summary: Nico makes a friend at the arcades
Relationships: Momose Saki & Saiba Nico
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7
Collections: Oreos' Fanfic Gauntlets





	My Summertime Gal

**Author's Note:**

> Ayyy it's my 50th fic! It's kinda wild to be here after two years on ao3, there's a lot of feelings going on right now.

Going to arcades was never the same for Nico after Zero Day. There was a weird girl who only showed up in the summertime. She didn't look like any of the normal arcade goers, usually wearing some kind of pretty, colorful sundress and sandals, a little purse in the shape of Pom Pom Purin and a little brown beret with cream lace accents on her head as well. Nico eventually found out her name was Saki, but she always called her 'dragon fail girl' in her head because Saki only came to the arcades for one game, Drago Knight Hunter Z.

Nico understood the appeal for someone who was such an obvious noob. Drago Knight spat out pretty cards and the girl seemed intent on getting them all. The only thing was that she sucked at video games. _Hard._ It took her forever to figure things out, and once it seemed like she was finally getting it, the tiniest things would break her focus. Her hands would fumble, or she'd look away from the screen for some godforsaken reason. There would even be times where Nico would watch her, form and focus completely perfect, but something apparently went wrong because she'd lose her combo and it was all downhill from there. And it wasn’t just Drago Knight. Nico watched her try other games and epically fail at all of them, too. The only one that seemed to bring out her stubbornness was Drago Knight, and on one of her playthroughs, Nico looked over from her Bakusou Bike race to heckle her a little. And the girl was obviously frustrated but answered as politely as possible without taking her eyes off the screen.

Now, that was interesting. From then on, Nico would poke and jab at her verbally just to see the soft, polite mask crack. But it wasn't entirely fun and games. The other girl started getting snappy back with her, still polite and sweet in tone, but sending veiled insults Nico's way that took her eight-year-old brain a few moments to figure out before she realized they were really mean comments.

And every summer from then on would go like that, Nico slinging insults and jabs Saki's way while the other girl tried her best to get her to stop or explain why that wasn't very nice, until she broke down every time and started fighting back. Time went on, and Saki eventually abandoned the Purin purse and beret in favor of little flower clips, if any accessories at all. She even showed up with terrible bangs she cut herself and a sunhat to hide them one month. And she wasn't the only one changing. Nico started wearing baseball caps, more bracelets and loud, colorful attire, starting to get a feel for her style and also starting to realize how she really didn't like how her... could they even call it a friendship?

Well, Nico didn't like how their friendship was going, so she started sliding play style critiques into her heckling, and it didn't go without notice. Saki would start asking for more advice and smiled a lot more. Nico found she liked Saki's smiles and tried her best to draw them out more with advice and compliments when she did better. It was slow going since their relationship was built on so much sass and Nico was ashamed to admit, toxicity in some places. But despite some blow out fights and tears, they always came back to each other in the end.

By the time their last summer together rolled around, they were tearing up the arcades together, playing every game and having a blast, even if Saki still sucked at some. Nico saw that as less of a negative and more of just a thing that made her Saki. She could hardly believe that this was the same girl she would tear into, but then again, she wasn't the same Nico as when they first met either.

But the good times couldn't last, and Nico had a terrible end of the school year, losing to M in her first tournament ever. She had spent so long preparing for it and she still failed. All she wanted, now more than ever, was to see Saki again and cry into her shoulder. But she didn't show. Nico waited every day of the summer, hoping Saki was just caught up with college or something and would come. Nico started regretting never getting her number, and as the days went by, her despair turned into fury. What, was she not good enough anymore now that Saki was a grown-up and in college?

Well, screw her then, Nico wouldn't need her either.

It was a long, lonely summer until she read the obituaries. Nico never read the paper but she felt compelled to on this day for some reason. She picked it up, reading through until she saw Momose Saki (18). Survived by her parents—

Nico crumpled the paper in her hands and slowly knelt to the floor, hugging it to herself, trembling and heaving with sobs until her parents came running to see what was wrong. But no matter what they tried, they couldn't wrestle the paper from her or figure out what was wrong until she calmed down, then explained all the wasted time she and Saki spent being mean when they could've just been friends. And all her misplaced anger when Saki hadn’t shown up because she was dead. Nico couldn't make it through the whole explanation without breaking down again, and her father grew frustrated and leaving in a huff, while Nico's mother just silently hugged her, not knowing what else to do.

So yeah, going to arcades wasn't the same, but they were working towards the restoration of Game Disease patients. And hopefully one day, she'd get to see Saki again and genuinely be a friend to her. She half-heartedly tapped at the buttons on a Tekken console, lost in thought when a hand placed two 100 yen coins on the ledge of the screen.

"You know, it's just playing the demo screen, so if you're not going to play, you should just get off," a familiar voice said.

Nico felt her whole face grow hot as she tried to hold back a sob, eyes watering and forcing her to blink rapidly, some tears getting caught on her lashes. She took in a shallow breath, then looked up to see Saki, smiling at her in one of her usual, flowery sundresses with the Purin purse over her shoulder. Nico leapt from the seat, not caring that she knocked it over in her rush to pull Saki in close, ready to never let her go.


End file.
